Our aim
The Policy Dialogue Initiative (PDI) was ECMI’s dialogue project in Macedonia that provided politically influential persons with the opportunity to work together to create more sustainable and inclusive policies. The project was implemented from January 2004 to March 2005, thanks to the generous support by Department of Foreign Affairs, Government of Ireland.
This project seeks to achieve concrete political action to implement the Framework (“Ohrid”) Agreement signed in August 2001 among Macedonia’s chief political parties. Within this initiative, four working groups were established to discuss issues of concern in the areas of education, economy, health care and human rights. Each working group comprised of 10-15 experts who came from three professional backgrounds: politicians and persons in government; professionals and experts in the relevant fields; and NGO leaders and activists. While the majority of the members were based in Skopje, other members came from Tetovo, Gostivar, Bitola, Stip and Kumanovo.
The primary aim of these working groups was to identify problems and make recommendations that will assist decision makers to formulate and implement more just, inclusive policies that improve the quality of services, strengthen the rule of law, and provide better economic opportunities for people of all backgrounds living in Macedonia. The secondary aim was to strengthen communication and build working relationships among members from different segments of society.
Through regular meetings, each working group worked through a series of planned steps to identify, define and prioritize main areas of concern within their policy fields, gather additional information on priority problems, analyze the information, make recommendations and devise strategies for the presentation of our recommendations.
Recommendations
The recommendations of the Working Group for Education highlight the necessity of recognizing the value of multiculturalism, strengthening infrastructural needs, encouraging depoliticization in the education sector, and enhancing teacher-training institutions. Separate presentations were made to the Ministry of Education, the Parliamentary Committee on Education, the Bureau for the Development of Education and to international organizations operating in Macedonia.
The Human Rights Working Group has focused on finding ways for strengthening the capacity of institutions responsible for human rights protection, as well as the issues of citizenship and the personal right to liberty.
With the aim of promoting the development of sustainable strategies in the field of health, the Working Group for Health has recommended developing a new national strategy for health care. Their recommendations in particular focus on relevant themes and prerequisites for consideration during the preparation of this new strategy as well as strategies for implementation.
The Working Group for Economy has adapted a dual approach toward issues in the economic sphere: macroeconomic and microeconomic policy problems. Recommendations were presented at the Economic Forum, December 13 at the Holiday Inn Skopje.
Outcome
Throughout December 2004, members of the working groups in ECMI’s Policy Dialogue Initiative in Macedonia were actively engaged in lobbying members of Parliament, representatives of individual ministries and relevant government institutions to adapt and implement their policy recommendations in the fields of education, health, economy and human rights. The Policy Dialogue Initiative has organized presentations of its recommendations at several events.
The Working Group on Education organized their first presentation of recommendations on December 7, for representatives of international organizations and donors that have programs in the field of education in Macedonia. The same recommendations were presented the next day at the Parliament for representatives from the Parliamentary Committee on Education, the Ministry of Education and the Bureau for the Development of Education. In addition, on December 13, a meeting with the Secretary of the Parliamentary Committee on Education was held to discuss future cooperation between education working group and the Parliamentary Committee for Education in the course of 2005 in regards to Multiculturalism in Education. This positive step was proposed by the Committee itself based on their favorable impression of the recommendations made by the Working Group on Education.
In addition to individual presentations targeting relevant government actors, a large press conference was held for members of the domestic and international press on December 14 at the Holiday Inn Skopje, to publicize the recommendations to local citizens and members of the international community.
In order to disseminate the recommendations developed within the Policy Dialogue Initiative, at the beginning of February, ECMI began implementing promotional activities on the national and local levels.
The Local Forum in Tetovo was held on March 29, 2005, on the premises of the Southeastern Europe University. The Local Forum was organized in cooperation with the Association of NGOs from Tetovo to identify the relevant stakeholders in the local community as target groups for promoting the recommendations. The members of the City Council, principles of the primary and secondary schools in Tetovo, academics from both universities in Tetovo, health practitioners and the managerial team from the Tetovo City Hospital, as well as businesspersons from Tetovo and the region attended this Forum.
The Local Forum in Kumanovo was held on March 30, 2005 at the restaurant “Rim-Paris” in Kumanovo. The relevant stakeholders were identified in cooperation with the Coalition for Multiethnic Cooperation as local partners for ECMI. Among the attendees were the Mayor of Kuamnovo, members of the City Council, high officials of the Ministry of Interior, representatives of the Macedonian Parliament from Kumanovo and Ministry of Education as well as Bureau for the Development of Education.
The Local Forum in Bitola was held on March 31, 2005 on the premises of hotel “Epinal”. All relevant institutions and local media were invited by ECMI’s local partner, Center for Democratic Initiatives-Bitola. Representatives from the University in Bitola, Ministry of Interior, NGO representatives that work in some of the fields covered by the recommend-
ations attended the Forum.
Public presentation of the recommendations was held at the Hotel Turist in Kriva Palanka with an aim to inform the public about the recommendations and possibilities of implementing them at the local level.
Public presentation of the education recommendations for the improvement of the educational system in Macedonia was held on 14 March at the Hotel Bitola. The audience comprised of over 40 residents of Bitola, directors and teachers of secondary and elementary schools, professors and students of the Faculty for Pedagogy, and representatives of NGOs and local media.
The NGO Coalition “Centre for Democratic Initiatives” organized a public presentation of the health recommendations in the high school for medicine in Bitola on 18 March 2005. During the discussion, the attendees expressed their positive opinion of the recommendations and offered several proposals for implementation at the municipal level.
The association of non-governmental organizations of Tetovo presented the recommendations of the working group on education at a public event on the premises of the Mosa Pijade high school on 16 March 2005. The public event was attended by representatives of the Office for Education, directors of secondary and elementary schools, university professors and the local media. All attendees agreed that the recommendations were of great relevance, which stemmed from the expertise of the members of the working group for education, and that the recommendations presented a new step towards educational reforms.
The promotion of the recommendations also included TV and radio promotions, promotions in the printed media, debates and working meetings with local stakeholders as well distribution of various promotional material.
